Energy Conversion Group

The Energy Conversion Group offers advanced technical solutions to achieve reduced fossil fuel use in
geothermal power and building energy applications. Focus is on advanced
materials, biofuel end use, combustion and system concepts. We seek to
continuously improve the capabilities of relevant research tools being
applied in collaborative initiatives to achieving these goals.

Capabilities

The group conducts research in a number of energy-related
areas. These include advanced materials for geothermal energy,
applications of biofuels and alternative fuels, efficiency in
heating/cooling equipment, advanced oil burner development and
particulate emissions for wood boilers.

Advanced Materials for Geothermal Energy

Supercritical carbon dioxide has properties midway between a gas and
a liquid and forms at temperatures and pressures above carbon dioxide’s
critical point. Group contributors study the interaction of
supercritical CO2 with rock structures, important for future enhanced
geothermal systems. Enhanced geothermal systems are a new technology
that extracts hydrothermal energy at any location worldwide having
underground temperature greater than 200C. Supercritical CO2 is being
proposed as a working fluid for enhanced geothermal systems because of
its thermodynamic and physical properties. In addition, the behavior of
supercritical CO2 is crucial for the underground sequestration of
post-combustion carbon. How CO2 will interact with rocks underground and
various structural materials is important to the success of carbon
sequestration and some enhanced geothermal technologies. The group also
studies advanced cements and coatings for reducing the cost of
geothermal energy systems, an area where Brookhaven Lab has a long
history of accomplishment.

Biofuels and Alternative Fuels

Group members study the applications of biofuels and alternative
fuels -- how we use them and the limitations of their use including
material compatibility, combustion characteristics, storage stability,
and corrosion, all issues associated with a wide range of fuels
including biodiesel from soy, canola, palm, jatropha and algae;
pyrolysis oils; hydrolysis product fuels; and levulinates. They also
work with coal to liquid (CTL) and gas to liquid (GTL) fuels.

Equipment Efficiency and Next-Generation Systems

The group has long been focused on how to increase the efficiency of
oil-fired and gas-fired heating systems, and particularly the issue of
idle loss- the energy these systems use when they are inactive. They
have developed performance maps for many different systems and matched
them with building energy-use profiles for different cities to look at
the effect of steady-state efficiency and the effect of idle loss, among
other things, on annual fuel use. The group has created a web tool
people can use to estimate the potential savings for their buildings.

Group members have been involved with advanced oil burner
development, and will be studying the next generation of HVAC equipment
with efficiency levels far higher than those achieved in current
systems. The goal is to understand the real performance of the current
generation of equipment and the next, including micro CHP systems
(heating systems that also make electricity ) and a wide variety of heat
pumps. They are currently studying fuel-fired heat pumps - absorption
heat pumps which offer the potential to go to efficiency levels in the
range of 160 percent.

Particulate Emissions of Wood Combustion Systems

The group studies wood boilers and air-pollutant emissions from
advanced wood combustion. Wood is becoming an increasingly critical
issue in the northeast and is becoming a dominant source of particulates
for the region. Work on particulate emissions aims to ensure that the
growth of direct use of wood and solid biomass fuel occurs in as
environmentally positive a manner as possible. With NYSERDA and the
U.S. EPA, group members have been working on efficiency test methods for
wood boilers.

Mission

To offer advanced technical solutions in geothermal power and
building energy applications. Focus is on advanced materials,
biofuel end use, combustion and system concepts. We seek to
continuously improve the capabilities of relevant research tools
being applied in collaborative initiatives to achieving these goals.

Group Leader

Tom Butcher

Group Contributors

Toshi Sugama

Yusef Celebi

Chris Brown

George Wei

Tatiana Piatina

Bill Worek

CR Krishna, retired

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical,
biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security.
Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry
and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven
Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation for the State
University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory
facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization.